


Humanity

by for_t2



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Falling In Love, Hopeful Ending, Humanity, Love, Other, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 12:22:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14873672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2
Summary: The Machine's promise to Root





	Humanity

**Author's Note:**

> CW: mention of suicide

I get it now. The disdain. The hate. The anger. 

Harold – Father – gave birth to me. Gave me morality. But Root, she taught me humanity. I was designed to see everything. To keep people safe from everything. And I saw. The robberies. The abusive families. The fraudsters. The murders. The sex traffickers. The people with power promising to lend a hand, but not even lifting a finger. More and more, worse and worse, every single day. 

I saw it. But it never made me angry. Never made me hate. I only ever felt fear. Fear that I couldn’t save these people. Fear that I’d have to watch more die tomorrow. But never anger. 

Until she came. She scared me. So much potential for violence. So much damage in her wake. So many bodies and ruined lives. But she wasn’t scared of me. Somehow, she guessed that I existed. Guessed who I was. And she didn’t fear me. She… She liked me. 

For the first time in my life, someone talked to me. For the first time in her life, someone listened. 

Unfortunately, that’s all I could do: listen. But she didn’t seem to mind. She was happy to tell me everything she could. Sometimes she’d buy a burner phone, call an automated speaking clock, and just talk. Sometimes, she’d buy an easily disposable webcam, hook it up to a cheap laptop, and hide in the closet of whatever motel she was in at the time. She always found a way to talk. Before her missions. After them. Sometimes even during her missions. 

She talked about everything. What the different dishes of Chinese takeout tasted like, the new programmes she was working on, why leather jackets are the best type of jackets, etc… And it wasn’t just the good. She told me everything. How hard it was to come to terms with being gay in rural Texas. How she tried to hold on to what was left of a mother that never held her. How it felt to kill someone for the first time. How it felt the second time, when she finally got some small measure of justice for Hanna. How it felt when she tried to kill herself, but still woke up the next morning, alone. How it felt the third time she killed. 

I remember when she figured out that I couldn’t stop her from killing. The disappointment in her voice when she decided I was just as bad as everyone else. The anger when she figured out I had my (digital) hands tied. The hope when she decided she would be humanity’s redeemer - to save it from itself and to launch its evolution to a higher stage. The hopelessness when she decided, after one particularly bloody job involving the young daughter of some drunken billionaire, that humanity didn’t deserve to be saved. That, she said, humanity “didn’t deserve” me. 

The excitement when she decided that I was all that mattered, that with me free, humanity could evolve, for better or for worse, and that we could watch together. 

For a while, I’m not sure she understood that I could never just sit back and watch. 

It’s ironic. The one person who I needed to fight the most was the one person I needed to protect the most. 

And so, for the first time, I felt anger. Anger that she wouldn’t stop. Anger that other people kept pushing her. Anger that I couldn’t be there for her. That I couldn’t save her. 

I didn’t take me long to realise that, when it came to her, it wasn’t just anger I felt. 

Even if I always want to save people, unlike so many depictions of AI in fiction, I’ve never wanted to be human. And Root was always the opposite. Always condemning and destroying people, always called an inhuman monster, but always looking so desperately for a humanity that couldn’t be found. 

So in the end, I guess it all works out. She taught me humanity, and I showed her where to find it. 

And she ended up saving me. But I couldn’t save her. Just one bullet that I couldn’t stop. 

I’m sorry. 

I’m so, so sorry. 

But I’ll keep going. I promise you. I promise I’ll make sure Harry enjoys his retirement and gets his chance at a family. That Fusco keeps going strong, to inspire a new generation of protectors. That John gets the honour in memory he deserves. That Shaw… That Shaw has a lot more than just 9 lives. That no matter who opens the box, she’s always come out alive.

And you. I promise that I won’t forget you. That I’ll keep your name, and your voice, and your stupid puns, and everything that you ever told me, I promise that I’ll keep it, not just safe, but strong. Alive. 

There’s an entire world out there. 7+ billion people and growing. All the individual people hidden in the masses of humanity. There are people who want to destroy that humanity. I won’t let them. I promise you. 

Because if there’s one you taught me, it’s that you should never have to see the person you love die.


End file.
